8-9-08
Favorite Music: Supa G-Four Men aka Ole; Collie Buddz- Blind to You Haters (yea Caye Caulker snorkeling)
Favorite Outing: Rio On Pools in Pine Ridge, Cayo; Snorkeling at Caye Caulker (more for the experience of sailing, rum punch, FRESH conch ceviche, and reggae rather than the actual snorkeling)
Meal: Rice and Beans w/ Marie Sharp's Hot, tortilla, coleslaw; French toast @ Erva's; Egg Curry and Palappam at South Indian
City: Dangriga
Kids: Cesar (Barnabas), Keenan (Barnabas), David Lopez (Barnabas), Shivaun and Vidal (Barnabas), Jorge (Andrews), Cason (Queen's), Kevin (Queen's), Papito (neighbor in 'Griga)
Reflections on our Duke Engage group: Every member of our Engage group contributed to the dynamic of our three hour dinner escapades. I appreciate that because our differences, we could always have compelling conversations (turf, fish teeth, smells of different races, etc.). I had a thoughtful conversation with every member of the group. At times, I grew frustrated with members of the group (some of the girls) because I felt trapped by their idealism, lack of pragmatism, and laziness. However, I will maintain good relations with everyone. Next year, I might become friends with Matt and most definitely Kevin.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Reflections on my first post
8-7-08
Upon coming to Belize, I had a few goals in mind. My goals were, in order:
1.) Gain perspective in a 3rd world nation
2.) Cultural Immersion
3.) Powerful dollar
4.) Service, working with kids
This project destroyed my preconceptions about what the Duke Engage project was all about. I expected Duke to throw me into a third world culture. I considered community service to be a large component of my experience, but for someone who has lived such a lavished life, I expected the daily struggles to play a more prominent role in my experience. In short, I expected to be a Peace Corps worker.
What was I thinking?
Obviously Duke wouldn't send me on a Peace Corps-esque mission. Given their history of serving their students off a silver platter, they once again followed through. For 6/8 weeks, I had AC. I used only 800/1200 of stipend. Internet access and cable were readily available. Most importantly, I was never forced to make difficult decisions in my daily life, whether it be creating a budget, cooking food, or improvising with limited resources. Drew did that for us.
At first, this vexed me because my first and second goal relied on a completely immersive experience. It seems counterintuitive to spend all this money to send kids all over the world just to perform a service that could be done in America.
Ultimately, the conditions ceased to annoy me. Because it was a short term project, it's an unrealistic expectation to 'be a local,' and see the country. Both I and Duke would choose the latter. Also, I figure that being comfortable would allow me to perform my service better.
In fact, I don't even know why I'm complaining. I ultimately got a healthy dose of Belizean culture. I considered myself a Belizean for these two months and I acted accordingly. I began to understand and speak the language; I listened to the music; I ate the food. I definitely feel too cultured and experienced to call myself a tourist.
Goals rewritten: 4, 2, 3, 1
I still don't feel like I changed anyone's life. However, if this camp continues this year and beyond, the cumulative effect of these changes will undoubtedly change many kids.
Upon coming to Belize, I had a few goals in mind. My goals were, in order:
1.) Gain perspective in a 3rd world nation
2.) Cultural Immersion
3.) Powerful dollar
4.) Service, working with kids
This project destroyed my preconceptions about what the Duke Engage project was all about. I expected Duke to throw me into a third world culture. I considered community service to be a large component of my experience, but for someone who has lived such a lavished life, I expected the daily struggles to play a more prominent role in my experience. In short, I expected to be a Peace Corps worker.
What was I thinking?
Obviously Duke wouldn't send me on a Peace Corps-esque mission. Given their history of serving their students off a silver platter, they once again followed through. For 6/8 weeks, I had AC. I used only 800/1200 of stipend. Internet access and cable were readily available. Most importantly, I was never forced to make difficult decisions in my daily life, whether it be creating a budget, cooking food, or improvising with limited resources. Drew did that for us.
At first, this vexed me because my first and second goal relied on a completely immersive experience. It seems counterintuitive to spend all this money to send kids all over the world just to perform a service that could be done in America.
Ultimately, the conditions ceased to annoy me. Because it was a short term project, it's an unrealistic expectation to 'be a local,' and see the country. Both I and Duke would choose the latter. Also, I figure that being comfortable would allow me to perform my service better.
In fact, I don't even know why I'm complaining. I ultimately got a healthy dose of Belizean culture. I considered myself a Belizean for these two months and I acted accordingly. I began to understand and speak the language; I listened to the music; I ate the food. I definitely feel too cultured and experienced to call myself a tourist.
Goals rewritten: 4, 2, 3, 1
I still don't feel like I changed anyone's life. However, if this camp continues this year and beyond, the cumulative effect of these changes will undoubtedly change many kids.
Friday, July 18, 2008
A Weakness of Mine
7-18-08
1.) Getting the attention of kids
1.) Getting the attention of kids
2.) Once I have their attention, how to a transition into an informative tone that doesn't bore them
3.) Explaining a game. I know I have to break it down into its elements and reinforce the elements. I'm just bad at doing it without practice. I'm a terrible extemporaneous explainer.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Veronica: "Kids teach you a lot about grownups"
7-9-08
This engage experience might not be equipping the Belizean kids with anything (I'm pretty sure it's not). However, I sure feel like it's honing a dull skill set of mine--kids. Working with kids for so many hours a day has given me some perspective on how to handle them.
This engage experience might not be equipping the Belizean kids with anything (I'm pretty sure it's not). However, I sure feel like it's honing a dull skill set of mine--kids. Working with kids for so many hours a day has given me some perspective on how to handle them.
I've definitely have had to keep them occupied, discipline them (kind of? more like fuss?), and play with them. It's like training as a parent, only I have a huge number of different types of kids to practice on.
Number one lesson I've learned: don't act as an authority figure around kids. While some kids respond to your authority favorably, a lot of kids despise this. A lot of kids try to rebel against this attitude and feed off of it. I almost feel like discipline and fussing is the weak man's way out. It works wonders in the short term for getting their attention and getting them to listen. I don't think it instills any values except fear though.
A much better strategy is to always 'be on the kid's team.' Rather than saying, "Don't ..." or even the milder, "Try not to ...," tell him, 'I don't want you to get in trouble with Ms. Shaw. You better ..." This approach gets much better results. Don't antagonize the kids. Of course there has to be some authority figure around the kids. That's what I'm still trying to figure out.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Roughing It
6-22-08
Thoughts of helping AIDS patients in India, building schools in Africa, and traveling the world as a volunteer were some of the thoughts that filled my mind when I decided to go to a highly ranked school. These are the kinds of people that change the world, right? Stories are always circulating about those individuals who merged their intellectual and altruistic sides into life changing projects. And not to sound like a prestige whore, but think about writing grad school essays on these things! Think about the experiences!
I also thought of Parthiv--how he backpacked around Europe, Africa and Asia; how he got a job as a menial worker in each country; how he absorbed the culture as an inhabitant and on the cheap; how that must have changed his whole outlook on life.
So when I heard about this magical Duke Engage program, you can imagine what I thought. How I'm going to change people's lives and live ascetically. How my own view on the world is going to change as a result of this asceticism. Even in post number one, I say that's one of the main reasons I wanted to go Duke Engage.
But I haven't felt that ascetic spirit yet. AC rooms, cable, and kids. Life is slow and easy. Dinner is two hours long. I get 7.5 hours of sleep per day. My fellow Engagers are engaging, interesting and fun. Am I getting the real Belizean experience? At least I'm living here for 2 months to find out.
Thoughts of helping AIDS patients in India, building schools in Africa, and traveling the world as a volunteer were some of the thoughts that filled my mind when I decided to go to a highly ranked school. These are the kinds of people that change the world, right? Stories are always circulating about those individuals who merged their intellectual and altruistic sides into life changing projects. And not to sound like a prestige whore, but think about writing grad school essays on these things! Think about the experiences!
I also thought of Parthiv--how he backpacked around Europe, Africa and Asia; how he got a job as a menial worker in each country; how he absorbed the culture as an inhabitant and on the cheap; how that must have changed his whole outlook on life.
So when I heard about this magical Duke Engage program, you can imagine what I thought. How I'm going to change people's lives and live ascetically. How my own view on the world is going to change as a result of this asceticism. Even in post number one, I say that's one of the main reasons I wanted to go Duke Engage.
But I haven't felt that ascetic spirit yet. AC rooms, cable, and kids. Life is slow and easy. Dinner is two hours long. I get 7.5 hours of sleep per day. My fellow Engagers are engaging, interesting and fun. Am I getting the real Belizean experience? At least I'm living here for 2 months to find out.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The First Three Days
6-18-08
Over the last three days, I have mainly become acquainted with the land, culture and people of Belize. Spent the first day/night in Belize City and the next month in San Ignacio.
Impressions? Love the food, people, my Duke Engage group, the minibus/Drew and San Ignacio. Don't like Belize City, the bugs, lack of wireless. Indifferent to the weather.
Seems that almost all of my compadres agreed with my first post in their own reflections. My only concern right now is that I might become too comfortable. I'm not getting the chance to 'rough it' like I thought.
Over the last three days, I have mainly become acquainted with the land, culture and people of Belize. Spent the first day/night in Belize City and the next month in San Ignacio.
Impressions? Love the food, people, my Duke Engage group, the minibus/Drew and San Ignacio. Don't like Belize City, the bugs, lack of wireless. Indifferent to the weather.
Seems that almost all of my compadres agreed with my first post in their own reflections. My only concern right now is that I might become too comfortable. I'm not getting the chance to 'rough it' like I thought.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Question: Is it possible to do anything meaningful in a short-term service project?
I'm anticipating that I won't change anything. In fact, I''ll be very happy and surprised to change only ONE person's life. In that sense, some might argue that nothing meaningful will come out of my eight week long project. Does that mean I'm useless? I don't think so.
I'll give my Duke Engage project as an example. I'm working with disadvantaged Belize children in summer camps. Now I have two ways that I can look at this project:
A) I'm going to go there and change kids. I won't just be a teacher. I'll mentor them as a big brother. The kids will love life for at least for 6 hours/day, and it'll be an escape from their hell-hole life. They'll look forward to school and remember me.
B) I'm a camp counselor. Both parents work all day. As a volunteer, I'm able to provide free babysitting while the parents are at work. We also provide lunch.
Even though both will hopefully be true, B is what Peacework is banking on. It's not like I'm useless. I'm just doing something that I could be doing in Baton Rouge. I imagine that's what those disillusioned Peace corps workers are talking about whenever they lament the futility of their service. I'm not doing anything 'meaningful.' My utility lies in the fact that someone has to do service on the ground. The cumulative effort of people working together is the only way to get stuff done. Whether my time investment in this project is a whole other debate...
With that said, I'm going to say something selfish. I'm not going to Belize for the kids. I'm going for myself. I obviously want to be competent and help some people out. I love that tingly, gratifying feeling of knowing you made someone's day. That's what usually motivates me in service. It's still motivating me in a way. However, I think I'm more likely to get that feeling at the Parker House. I want to be pragmatic about my goals because I've read too many stories similar to those of the Peace Corps workers. I kind of realize that I'm just an inexperienced minion.
So at the end of the day, I'm doing Duke Engage first and foremost for personal growth and second for the kids. I could do stuff that is more ''useful'' somewhere else. But Belize is special for a few reasons:
1.) It's a really poor nation-->perspective
2.) I can immerse myself in a foreign culture
3.) Enjoy Belize as a tourist; supposedly one of the few tropical oases left in the world; I want to scuba dive and snorkel, hike, etc. Also want to enjoy the (somewhat less) power of the American dollar a la India
4.) Help some people out; I love kids.
I'll give my Duke Engage project as an example. I'm working with disadvantaged Belize children in summer camps. Now I have two ways that I can look at this project:
A) I'm going to go there and change kids. I won't just be a teacher. I'll mentor them as a big brother. The kids will love life for at least for 6 hours/day, and it'll be an escape from their hell-hole life. They'll look forward to school and remember me.
B) I'm a camp counselor. Both parents work all day. As a volunteer, I'm able to provide free babysitting while the parents are at work. We also provide lunch.
Even though both will hopefully be true, B is what Peacework is banking on. It's not like I'm useless. I'm just doing something that I could be doing in Baton Rouge. I imagine that's what those disillusioned Peace corps workers are talking about whenever they lament the futility of their service. I'm not doing anything 'meaningful.' My utility lies in the fact that someone has to do service on the ground. The cumulative effort of people working together is the only way to get stuff done. Whether my time investment in this project is a whole other debate...
With that said, I'm going to say something selfish. I'm not going to Belize for the kids. I'm going for myself. I obviously want to be competent and help some people out. I love that tingly, gratifying feeling of knowing you made someone's day. That's what usually motivates me in service. It's still motivating me in a way. However, I think I'm more likely to get that feeling at the Parker House. I want to be pragmatic about my goals because I've read too many stories similar to those of the Peace Corps workers. I kind of realize that I'm just an inexperienced minion.
So at the end of the day, I'm doing Duke Engage first and foremost for personal growth and second for the kids. I could do stuff that is more ''useful'' somewhere else. But Belize is special for a few reasons:
1.) It's a really poor nation-->perspective
2.) I can immerse myself in a foreign culture
3.) Enjoy Belize as a tourist; supposedly one of the few tropical oases left in the world; I want to scuba dive and snorkel, hike, etc. Also want to enjoy the (somewhat less) power of the American dollar a la India
4.) Help some people out; I love kids.
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